by Jay Toney
"Nathaniel, the powder consists of mainly calcium phosphate and a little salt."
"So?"
"Bones consists of calcium phosphate and collagen. I believe the collagen was digested leaving only the calcium. These are the remains of the colonists."
"What could have done this?"
"I don't know. We will have to be on our guard, it can be anything."
We flew to the next outpost. Like the last outpost, this one had piles of bone matter wherever we walked. Unlike the last outpost, this one had huge webs crossing between buildings. Even though we didn't see any spiders in the webs, we stayed clear avoiding them. Occasionally we would see bodies cocooned and suspended in the webs. None of them were making any movement, so we assumed they were dead, or worse.
A lone spider crossed my path. It was huge, about six inches in diameter. There was no way that a spider this size could have made any of the webs we saw. I did the one thing that came naturally to me. I stomped it with my boot. It let out a loud screech, just before being squished. The screech was answered, by several others. That's it tell your mates how I squashed you. I hated spiders and they hated me.
"I think we best be getting out of here," Red urged us, "I'm pretty sure that was a call for help."
Red was right, we started back exiting the city. More screeching echoed in the empty streets. It sounded like it was getting closer. Spiders were now venturing out into their webs, some descending, and following us. The group of spiders grew larger, forming a mob. Then they attacked. Our troopers formed a defensive ring around us and began torching the spiders with their flame throwers while the rest of us fired our blasters into the mob. The spiders let out loud screeches as they were burned alive. Smoke and a foul stench filled the air. The spiders continued to advance, even with their numbers dwindling, we continued burning them alive. The smaller spiders burned easily, leaving a stained spot on the ground and occasionally leaving a charred carcass. The larger spiders were more resistant to the flames, their legs burned easily, leaving them with few charred legs remaining, most were completely burned away. Several of the largest spiders survived, with burns about their bodies, but with their legs burned away. I took great pleasure in killing the survivors with my blaster.
It had to be spiders, I thought. Why couldn't it have been some other type of bug. We hated each other and took pleasure causing each other pain or discomfort whenever we could. After the area was safe, and every living spider we could find killed. We made our way back to our shuttles.
We flew over the largest colony and were treated to a hellish view. Walls surrounded the city. People were atop of the walls using swords, spears, and pitchforks to try to keep the invaders out. Hordes of spiders surrounded the city, trying to climb the walls.
The occasional web that was cast, managed to entangle defenders. Sometimes they snared a single person, sometimes they managed to entangle small groups. People rallied to help those entangled in the webs, but not everyone could be saved. Some of the unfortunate people, captured by the webs, were pulled from the walls to the waiting horde. Fortunately, their screams didn't last long as the spiders consumed them, alive.
I divided the area surrounding the city into five sectors on my ships computer and assigned four of those to my other pilots. We split up, starting our attack. I flew in slow, and dropped two of my bombs into the horde of spiders. The explosions blew several spiders apart, and left several more crippled. I swung around for another attack run. I selected guns and flew in close to the wall, my guns firing into the spiders while I made my strafing run. Bits of spider flew into the air as the high explosive rounds blew them apart.
In the future I would have to consider using cluster bombs to take out light armor vehicles, and troops. I had never faced hordes of any type of creature before, and wasn't properly prepared for it. Even so, the bombs and 20 mm guns were having a devastating effect on the spiders.
On my next pass I could see the people on the walls waving and jumping enthusiastically. I lined up the spiders up, in my gun sight, and started firing my guns into the horde. I was rewarded with more bits of spider flying high into the air. I selected bombs again, and made another pass. I designated two target areas on my computer, and dropped my bombs.
I had six bombs, four missiles, and about 600 rounds of 20 mm ammunition left. My 40 mm cannons were still untouched. I changed the weapons selector to missiles, before making another run. I selected two targets, big fat juicy spiders, and fired the missiles into the horde. The spiders were noticeably fewer, with fewer spiders to fill the gaps I made in their crowd.
I selected the 20 mm guns, and made another attack run, clearing the wall. My external gun pods were empty now and the weapons selector removed them from the weapons selection menu. I selected particle beams for another strafing run and fired them into the horde. The particle beams killed several spiders, but were no where near as effective as the 20 mm high explosive rounds were.
I fired my last two missiles into the crowd, blowing several spiders apart. The spiders started retreating. I hurried them by dropping my last four bombs along the rear of the horde. It set off a stampede. They were making a rapid dash to escape us.
Red, Mike, Amber, and Jewel reported similar success. I sent Amber and Jewel back to the Persephone. Red and Mike formed up on my wing tips. I circled the city twice, making sure the spiders were still retreating from us, before looking for a landing site. There was an area cleared, and used for visiting spaceships. At the edge of the field, there were about twenty old Vipers. The fighters looked like they had been sitting there for years. We landed together, as close as we could get to their port facilities.
The governor was waiting to greet us. Security forces held the crowds of people back, who were waiting to see and thank us. First, the governor as the peoples representative wanted to officially thank us:
"Gentlemen, I don't know who you all are. It doesn't matter. If it wasn't for your aid, we would all be facing a horde of spiders, that would have overrun are defenses in the very near future. We all faced a fate worse than death. I can't thank you enough. This is our greatest treasure, left from our ancestors, when they first colonized this planet."
He handed me a small gold plated box. Embossed on its surface was a solar system with 8 planets and two planetoids orbiting a sun. Each object was named; Sol, Mercury, Venus, Terra, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Ceres, and Pluto. The Name Sol, was the only name I was remotely Familiar with. Inside the box were four old fashion memory crystals. I thanked the governor.
"Tonight, we will have a celebration to honor all of you as our guests. I noticed, that two of your ships, left us. Please have return so we can thank them at tonight's banquet."
"I noticed, that you are without defensive weapons," Red observed. "I might be persuaded to trade for a few that I have in storage, aboard my ship."
"In all of the years that our colony has been here, we never had need to use any. Our neighbors have settled down, becoming peaceful. We haven't had any need to use spacecraft to defend us in generations." He pointed to the old Vipers sitting in the field. "Those ships have been sitting dormant for as long as I can remember."
"I would be interested in trading for them. I have a certain passion for antiques, and would like to try restoring them."
"They are yours, we owe all of you that and much more."
"Nathaniel, where are you going to put them?" Mike asked.
"We can make room in the starboard Nacelle. They can sit on its runway, if they have to. We will have more room after we do some trading. I don't need a lot, so I'll mostly be taking credits with me."
"I'll make arrangements to have them transported up to the Persephone with our cargo shuttles."
"Thanks Mike."
&nbs
p; I called the ship inviting Amber and Jewel back down for tonight's celebration. I still missed Natty. She would have had a lot of fun celebrating with us. The Governor took us to a hotel, and provided a suite for us, where we could rest until the celebration. Red and I put together a list of cargo that we were willing to trade, and gave it to the governor. I called the Lucy to let Captain Jenkins know that he could open shop, and start transporting guests to and from the planet. The people here had a lot to celebrate, and he would prosper from their business.
Jewel, Amber, Rosie, Doc and Jane joined us at the hotel. We were all going to be treated as honored guests. I made arrangements to rent this suite for at least two weeks. The crew, except for the Lucy's crew, needed some ground time. Red took the time to call his ship and start rotating crews planetside, for shore leave.
"Persephone," I called on my com.
"How can I be of assistance Captain?"
"Start rotating the crew down for shore leave. Rotate them in thirds, each for a four day stay."
"Anything else Captain?"
"Maintain long range scanning, and alert me if there are any problems."
"Aye, aye Captain."
We were all taken to a large amphitheater, usually reserved for sports. The whole stadium was filled with the colonies people. There were easily over 100,000 people taking part in tonight's celebration.
The governor and several of his delegates gave speeches, thanking us for our help. Amber and Jewel took turns nudging me awake, every time I started snoring. It seemed to take forever for the speeches to end. Each speech giver made sure they let the audience know that it was their decision to reach out for help, bringing us to help them. It was politics as usual. The politicians were reminding their followers to vote for them again. They would remind the people, of this day for decades to come, ensuring they remained in power.
The meal was finally brought to our table. It was a delicacy, they reserved for special occasions. The servers opened the lids of the chafing dishes, to reveal spiders. They were either fried or deep fried. Some had their legs curled, others outstretched. All of the spiders in our chafing dish had body sizes of six inches or smaller. Depending on the size of the spider, between one and three were enough to fill our plates.
Doc assured me that they would taste a lot like chicken. I think I knew what caused the spiders to attack, and was pretty sure the populace already knew. They were eating their young. The legs were crunchy, but had a good flavor. The body however was tough and chewy. It didn't taste anything like chicken, it tasted like it looked. It tasted like bugs, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. It must be an acquired taste. The colonies people, were engorging themselves on the spiders flesh. I gave up chewing and swallowed the lump in my mouth, chasing it down with beer.
I finished my plate, then another, taking great satisfaction in eating my enemy, even though the flavor wasn't to my liking. After the meal we were treated to music and dancing. I danced with Jewel and Amber well into the night, before finally returning to the hotel. I cuddled up with my wives and quickly fell asleep. It had been a long day for all of us.
I sold more of our excess cargo, making more room aboard the Persephone. I even sold ten pallets of silver. Originally, they were going to only buy five, when I offered to sell my silver ten percent below market value, they doubled their purchase. That gave me a healthy 45,000,000 credit profit, considering it was stolen property, not costing me anything.
I still had 175 pallets left in my starboard nacelle, 100 pallets of gold, 100 pallets of platinum, and several chests of gems were still untouched in my smuggling holds. I wasn't going to go broke anytime soon.
Red sold ten 20mm guns and four 30 mm guns. He included 10 ammo packs for each gun in the deal, supplying the cities defenses until they could manufacture their own ammunition. He also sold a lot of his excess cargo, freeing up valuable space on his ship. The Vengeance wasn't designed to haul cargo, beyond what was stored for his ships continued operation. His crew could stretch out in their bunks now, instead of sharing their limited space with cargo.
I walked the city streets with Amber and Jewel, visiting various shops. They spent a lot of time oohing and aahing, looking at various pieces of jewelry.
"If you see something you like just buy it," I urged them, "we can afford it."
They ignored me and continued torturing me by admiring nearly every piece of jewelry they saw. I was just about ready to buy the shops entire inventory, when the girls finally selected a few pieces they liked. They entered an antique shop next. Only a few pieces caught my attention, one of which was an old astrogation guide. It contained star maps, and solar systems that I never heard of. All of the pages were hand written, and yellowed with time. I bought the book. I was curious to find out if it was genuine or not. Someone spent a great deal of time writing the data. It couldn't have been the original book, but it may have been handed down and copied, generation after generation.
With our purchases made. We went back to the hotel. After a two weeks of trading, shopping, sightseeing, and partying, I was exhausted. I was more than ready to get back to the ship and back into my routine. We packed our belongings, headed to our marauders and shuttles, and flew back to the Persephone.
Trouble Always Finds Me
This system had a red dwarf sun and only three planets. None of them, or their moons were habitable. Two of the planets were ringed gas giants. The rings may have been what was left by planets they consumed, when their orbits changed. The last planet was a frozen world with two moons.
Amber suddenly shouted, "We have incoming ships on our scans."
She rapidly switched all of our sensors to passive scans only. Jewel silenced our transponder, and contacted the Lucy, and the Vengeance.
"Persephone, cut our running lights and drives. Go silent on all electronic emissions."
"Yes Captain."
"Do you think we have been spotted?"
"There is nothing to indicate that we have."
We waited, running dark and coasting to our next jump point. We were still hours away. The fleet of ships that entered the system were not trying to hide their presence. Their drive plumes showed bright against the starfield. Their electronic emissions were easily detectable, if not identifiable. When the data broadcast from their ships caught up to us, we would be able to run them against our database and identify the ships.
It didn't take long to get a match. They were definitely our lizard friends. I had hoped that they had gotten tired of the hunt, and went back into hibernation. We would have to continue using care as we traveled. Fortunately for us, they hadn't learned to be as devious and sneaky as we were prone to be, preferring to use bruit force against superior knowledge.
Persephone managed to translate the files that Mike downloaded from their ship's computer. He split his time between going over the data, with Shar'tu's help and working on restoring the Vipers.
We would have to wait for them to jump to hyperspace, before we jumped out of the system. If we jumped before them, there was a good chance we would be detected an they would be able to use our jump vector to follow us.
Red's image appeared on our viewscreen, "Nathaniel why haven't we jumped? We reached the jump point 30 minutes ago."
"If we jump now, with the lizards following us, there is a good chance that they could follow us."
"That's why you should be the fleet commander, I'm a mercenary, use to taking orders, not giving them."
"We are doing good, working together. Lets leave it that way."
"How long do you think it will take them to jump out of this system?
"Three more hours, at the soonest. They are cruising much faster than we can."
"It woul
d be nice if Mike and Shar'tu could find some useful information that we could use to upgrade our ships."
"Persephone is finished translating the alien files. Mike and Shar'tu are going through the files, to see if they can find anything useful to us. It's going to take time. Even with Persephone's help, it may take months to sort through everything and catalog it,"
"How are the Vipers coming along?"
"They are in surprisingly good condition. The hydraulics and fuel tanks and lines will need to be purged, and the filters replaced. The energy cells are depleted. Randolph is trying to bring them back to life and recharge them. Kim wants to update the flight control and weapons computers. After all of that, Mike wants to inspect and test everything before letting anyone fly them."
"You are the only one I know of that can fly them."
"Don't tell Mike yet, but anyone who can fly a Marauder, should have no problem flying Vipers."
"If that's the case I know of six people who can't wait to fly them."
"How many of them do you think Mike and his crew will be able to get flying."
"I would have been happy with one or two, but Mike seems to think he can get all 20 of them combat ready."
Shar'tu and the rest of the second watch entered the bridge to relieve us. I let him have the command chair, and briefed him about our situation. My other officers were also gave up their positions, but all of us were reluctant to leave the bridge. After what seemed like an eternity, but was just under an hour, the alien fleet jumped into hyperspace.
Shar'tu gave his navigator the signal to jump to the next system. Our small fleet disappeared into hyperspace. We left the bridge to eat dinner in the officers mess. Rosie cooked dinner tonight and we were all assured a treat, or so I thought.
"I have a special treat for all of you. Doc told me of your fondness of spider meat, and I think I found a way to cook it."
She started by frying the spiders. After cooking them she separated the legs from the bodies. She chopped the legs into little pieces and used them to make a gravy. Next she beat the bodies with a meat tenderizer, flattening them. She separated the meat from the juices, and rinsed the meat clean. Them she rolled the meat in flour and deep fried it again. She served the spider with a baked potato, and carrots.